Frank Lampard has clarified his relationship with the Stamford Bridge board and his role in making transfers almost one year on from his sacking as Chelsea manager
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Frank Lampard dispelled a common claim about Chelsea’s transfer policy as he gave an honest assessment of his dealings as Blues manager.
The England legend, 43, was appointed in July 2019 and steered the west London club to a fourth-place finish in the Premier League and the FA Cup final during his first season.
Chelsea were unable to make transfers during that campaign due to a breach of FIFA rules, but they returned in the summer of 2020 with a hefty war chest and made multiple big-money signings.
Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwell, Hakim Ziyech and Edouard Mendy arrived for a combined fee in the region of £212million.
However, Lampard struggled to get the best out of his new arrivals during his second season in charge.
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German duo Havertz and Werner found it especially difficult to acclimatise to Premier League, and their poor form is viewed as one of the main reasons Lampard was sacked in January 2021.
Many fans suspected the cause of Chelsea’s issues boiled down to Lampard having a lack of input and authority on the process of signing players.
But in a fresh eye-opening interview, Lampard insised he sanctioned every transfer made during his tenure and he could have blocked a bid for any player he did not want.
Asked what would happen if he had tried to veto a transfer, Lampard told Sky Sports’ The Overlap : “It never happened in that way.
“But I would probably have had that veto, if I’m honest. In that first year, we were transfer banned, we were having conversations about who to bring in in the summer – we obviously bought a fair few players.
“I was never out of the loop on that, it was never one where I was like, ‘They did this behind my back!’ I never had that because it was very open.
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“The scouting department with Petr [Cech, technical and performance advisor]… Timo was a big one because Liverpool had wanted him, Manchester United I think were in.
“We knew there were three or four other big clubs, so when I had the conversation with Timo I knew I had to be on my game to get him to come.”
Werner and Havertz managed just 10 Premier League goals between them during their debut seasons with Chelsea, but Lampard claims “adaption issues” are natural for players arriving in England.
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He added: “With Timo and Kai, there was clearly gonna be adaptation issues, and I know that from being in it because they were probably shocked at the speed of training and the physical demands of the game.
“And I think Timo and Kai had that in the early days. Kai also had terrible Covid which set him back quite a lot.
“In terms of the signings, I was happy. Ben Chilwell was a big one that I wanted, I had to try… as a left-back, I wanted a player of his qualities.”
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